Celebrating Culture Through Collaboration: Bole Festival 2025 x Wiki Niger Delta Heritage Collective.

Bole is a popular street food in Nigeria, made from roasted plantain, often eaten with pepper sauce, roasted fish, or other accompaniments. What began as a simple everyday meal has grown into the centerpiece of the Bole Festival, an annual event in Port Harcourt that brings together food, music, art, and cultural identity from across the Niger Delta. The festival has become one of Nigeria’s iconic food and cultural gatherings, attracting thousands of participants each year.

In 2025, under the theme “One Bite. One Beat. One Moment,” the festival was documented in partnership with the Wiki Niger Delta Heritage Collective. This collaboration aimed to preserve and share the festival’s food traditions, performances, and cultural expressions on Wikimedia platforms, making them freely accessible to people everywhere.

Members of the Wiki Niger Delta Heritage Collective, a network of photographers, videographers, and oral storytellers across the region, recorded the two-day event. Their documentation captured not only the preparation of bole but also a wide variety of Niger Delta delicacies, stage performances, cultural displays, and the vibrant community atmosphere. These contributions are being uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. In addition, the team updated the Wikipedia article on the Bole Festival to reflect the activities of the 2025 edition and created new sections that document past editions, expanding the historical and cultural context available to readers.

Community Impact
The partnership also created opportunities for young people and local creatives to gain hands-on experience in cultural documentation while contributing directly to open knowledge. It strengthened community engagement and highlighted how Wikimedia projects can serve as a tool for preserving and sharing living traditions.

By documenting the Bole Festival, the initiative not only celebrates a beloved local food but also helps address the underrepresentation of Niger Delta culture on Wikimedia platforms. The festival’s dishes, stories, and practices are now preserved and accessible for future generations and for audiences around the world.